Sexy ‘Odyssey’ costumes set to conquer Halloween 2026

“The Odyssey,” the epic film directed by Christopher Nolan, dominated at movie theaters this year and its influence is likely to spread into adult Halloween costumes this year.
You can expect to see lots of sexy women dressed as Greek goddesses and Helen of Troy along with men in ancient Greek warrior outfits at parties and nightclubs on Oct. 31.
In its annual Halloween costume trend report, retailer Spirit Halloween said this about the trend: “Mythological lore is staging a ferocious takeover. Ripped straight from ancient texts and cinematic masterpieces, battle-hardened Greek armor, flowing cloaks, and epic accessories are primed to rule 2026.”
Lingerie company Yandy also is spotlighting sexy Odyssey-inspired costumes this year.

Spirit Halloween costume memes parody politicians, celebrities, white-collar office drones

Every Halloween season, social media is flooded with fake Spirit Halloween costume memes. And this year is no exception.
The viral images use a specific template: the iconic orange-and-yellow Spirit packaging, a generic name for a politician, celebrity or derided worker type, and a bulleted list of humorous accessories included in the bag.
A lot of the memes circulated are favorites from prior years that are still relevant.
What follows is a collection of funny Spirit Halloween meme images. New this year are Madonna at the MTV VMA 2026 ceremony (see image above), Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, fake football player Daejon Love and accused child killer Lindsay Clancy.
On the U.S. political front, classics include former First Lady Michelle Obama, aka Big Mike; Sen. Elizabeth Warren; and former Vice President Kamala Harris.
On the business side of Spirit Halloween memes are portrayals of a LinkedIn influencer and private equity associate.

AI-written articles: The good and the bad

Artificial intelligence programs now write as many online articles as humans, according to digital marketing firm Graphite. That reality has both negative and positive consequences.
On the negative side, some AI-generated articles feature information designed to deceive for political or commercial gain. Also, AI-created articles often contain factual errors and hallucinations.
In addition, AI-generated articles have the potential to flood the internet with misinformation and crowd out fact-checked human-created articles.
Plus, bad actors are making it hard to tell what’s real and what’s fake news on the internet.
As with all new technologies, there are opportunities for benefits and harm.
On the plus side, AI-written articles could serve “news deserts” – areas without human reporters.
If they have access to digitized police and court records, AI systems could quickly generate reports on crimes and legal actions. They could do the same with local government actions and provide summaries of live public meetings if they’re streamed online.
Further, AI systems could monitor location-based social media for incidents of interest, especially photos and videos. It could provide summaries of what is going on locally.
So, there’s likely good and bad with AI-written articles.

Photo: Graphic from Deutsche Bank report.

Related articles:

AI Now Writes as Many Online Articles as Humans (Graphite; May 2026)

With no local news, those in news deserts turn to social media feeds, influencers and gossip (Medill Local News Initiative at Northwestern University; Feb. 10, 2026)

AI summaries are destroying the news business

Generative artificial intelligence is pushing the news business to the breaking point. AI summaries from the likes of Google, Microsoft, OpenAI and others are diverting revenue from news publishers, leading to fewer click-throughs, less advertising revenue and fewer subscriptions.
Staffers at Microsoft and OpenAI knew that scraping news websites to train their AI models could damage or even destroy those publications, according to court documents in a high-profile copyright infringement lawsuit filed by the New York Times. (See articles below.)
An OpenAI executive referred to an “existential threat” to publishers and a Microsoft executive said AI content scraping had started a “doom loop” for the news business, according to reports this week.
From a consumer perspective, the AI summaries are enticing. They give users the answers they are looking for instead of weblinks to full articles to read. Also, many publications have pay walls that provide friction for the casual web surfer but that AI systems have managed to bypass.
AI model builders must coordinate with news publishers and compensate them for their work. Otherwise, they could end up killing the valuable sources of information that they rely on for their answer engines.

Related articles:

Tech Companies’ Staff Knew Their AI Tools Posed ‘Existential Threat’ to Publishers (The Wall Street Journal; Sept. 17, 2026)

Microsoft and OpenAI Workers Worry About ‘Largest Theft of Labor’ in History (The New York Times; Sept. 17, 2026)

OpenAI, Microsoft executives' quotes on AI training threaten copyright defense, news outlets argue (Reuters; Sept. 17, 2026)

Google rolls out pay-per-value AI licensing program to publishers (Digiday; Sept. 14, 2026)

Ziff Davis CEO: if OpenAI can find $750 billion for data centers, it can find money for publishers, too (Fortune; Sept. 14, 2026)

Photo: AI artwork produced with prompts on Google Gemini.

AI-generated content is flooding the internet

In the early days of the worldwide web, the New Yorker published a now-famous single-panel comic with the caption: "On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog."
That cartoon by Peter Steiner was published on July 5, 1993. (See articles by Wikipedia and Know Your Meme.)
Today, with the rise of artificial intelligence, nobody knows if they’re interacting with AI online.
Meanwhile, AI slop content is flooding the internet right now. And it’s probably just the beginning.
A study by Pew Research found that 35% of web pages published since the November 2022 launch of ChatGPT by OpenAI show significant signs of being written by artificial intelligence.

Fake writers, AI-generated articles

Media watchdog Press Gazette raised questions about eight prolific finance journalists who cover the world of cryptocurrency. When websites that published their articles were alerted and were unable to verify that those writers exist, they removed the articles.
The questionable freelancers had a history of writing positive stories about cryptocurrency launches, Press Gazette said. Their LinkedIn profiles appear to be fake.
Press Gazette also uncovered 1,000 articles in the British press attributed to 50 fake, non-existent and AI-enhanced experts. The investigation spurred leading public relations trade bodies to launch a campaign that called for journalists to check sources and the credentials of PR people they deal with.
Press Gazette also exposed two fake versions of the Forbes website that were packed with AI-generated and promotional content. Those websites contained articles by writers whose identities could not be verified, Press Gazette said. The articles appear to be AI generated, according to AI detector Pangram. The fake Forbes sites were linked to a shady PR agency Baden Bower.

LinkedIn adds 'Seems like AI slop' button

Last month, LinkedIn announced a new feature for users to flag posts suspected of being generated by AI. It has added a button called “Seems like AI slop.” The social media platform is awash in AI slop, 404 Media reported.
Social media services Instagram, X and others also are dealing with a surge in AI content. Some of it is benign but some of the content is intended to deceive. And it’s only going to get worse.

Related articles:

How Much of the Internet Is Written With AI? (Pew Research Center; Aug. 20, 2026)

A third of web pages published since ChatGPT launched were written by AI, study finds (Tech Crunch; Aug. 20, 2026)

Tech websites remove articles after failing to verify journalists exist (Press Gazette; Sept. 3, 2026)

PR bodies launch campaign against fake experts after Press Gazette investigation (Press Gazette; Jan. 29, 2026)

Fake Forbes websites and the PR agency offering guaranteed coverage – at a price (Press Gazette; Aug. 12, 2026)

LinkedIn Introduces a 'Seems Like AI Slop' Button (404 Media; July 30, 2026)

LinkedIn offers the option to report AI slop (HR Dive; Aug. 3, 2026)

Photo: Comic generated by Google Gemini.

Song of summer 2026: 'Choosin' Texas' by Ella Langley

With the arrival of Labor Day weekend, summer has unofficially come to an end. So, it’s time to choose the song of summer – the tune that defined summer 2026 and racked up the most attention, airplay, streams and media buzz.
The song of summer for 2026 is “Choosin' Texas” by Ella Langley. The country-pop crossover hit "Choosin' Texas" spent 20 weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100. It also was the top pick for Song of Summer by the editors at streaming music service Spotify.
A strong runner-up was "hate that i made you love me" by Ariana Grande. It was Spotify’s global most-streamed song of the summer after spending 89 days inside the Spotify Global Top 10.
Ariana Grande is my pick for music artist of summer 2026. Her hit song "hate that i made you love me" and her Eternal Sunshine Tour created a lot of buzz. The tour started on June 6 in Oakland, Calif., and ended on Sept. 1 at the O2 Arena in London, England.
My honorable mentions for music artist of summer 2026 are Harry Styles and Zara Larsson.
Harry’s Together, Together World Tour earned glowing reviews. Instead of a traditional stadium concert tour, Styles opted for multi-night residencies at large venues in major culture capitals. The tour included a 30-night run at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
Meanwhile, Larsson owned the digital aesthetic of the summer season. Her remix album “Midnight Sun: Girls Trip” was a smash and she became the face of TikTok's "Pop Girl Summer" with viral dance choreography, beauty trends, and heavy festival coverage.

Recent songs of summer

2018   “In My Feelings” by Drake
2019   “Old Town Road” by Lil Nas X featuring Billy Ray Cyrus
2020   “Rockstar” by DaBaby featuring Roddy Ricch
2021   “Good 4 U” by Olivia Rodrigo
2022   “As It Was” by Harry Styles
2023   “Last Night” by Morgan Wallen
2024   “I Had Some Help” by Post Malone and featuring Morgan Wallen
2025   “Ordinary” by Alex Warren
2026   “Choosin' Texas” by Ella Langley

Music artist of summer

2018   Cardi B
2019   Billie Eilish
2020   Doja Cat
2021   Olivia Rodrigo
2022   Harry Styles
2023   Taylor Swift
2024   Chappell Roan
2025   Morgan Wallen
2026   Ariana Grande

Related articles:

From Country Roads to Football Anthems, These Are Spotify’s 2026 Songs of Summer (Spotify; Sept. 3, 2026)

So, What Was Song Of The Summer 2026? (Nylon; Sept. 3, 2026)

Ella Langley’s ‘Choosin’ Texas’ Breaks Record With 20th Week at No. 1 (The New York Times; Aug. 31, 2026)

TikTok is censoring conservative voices

Conservative commentators on X have been speaking out lately about how social media platform TikTok has been deleting videos that talk about the infiltration of Islam into American communities and politics.
Content creators including Chloe Trapanotto, Nate Friedman, Cam Higby, Amy Reichert, Xaviaer DuRousseau and others have said their videos and posts on TikTok about the threats posed by Islam and illegal immigration have been deleted.
TikTok is vaguely claiming that the videos violated “community guidelines.” Islamists like to complain about “Islamophobia” even though having fears about an Islamic takeover are not an irrational concern. It’s already happened in hosts of formerly Christian countries.
Instead of trying to weaken the U.S. and Europe through terror attacks, Islam’s Jihad 2.0 is about mass immigration and changing western governments from within. It could take decades but Islamists are playing the long game to advance their totalitarian ideology.
Check out the following thread on X for specifics.
Pundits expressing outrage over the TikTok censorship have included Eric Daugherty, James O'Keefe, Ryan Fournier and Avery Daye.
While TikTok and other social media platforms have bowed to complaints from Muslims and leftists to take down posts, X, formerly Twitter, remains a beacon of light for expressing diverse opinions. Thank you, Elon Musk.

TikTok is censoring conservative voices that speak out about the infiltration of Islam into American politics and communities. What follows is a thread of concerning posts.

— Patrick Seitz (@PatrickSeitz) August 30, 2026

@PatrickSeitz Namaste, the unroll you asked for: https://t.co/xdeYGkMQ7x Enjoy :) 🤖

— Thread Reader App (@threadreaderapp) August 30, 2026